#followupcc

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Analyzing your Outreach

If you’re reaching out to potential leads, you should also be researching how to increase your conversion.  Thankfully, there’s been a ton of research out there on this topic, and the latest Case Study done by Adam Bluemner at Find Accounting Software is a great resource:

http://findaccountingsoftware.com/expert-advice/2015-b2b-web-to-phone-qualification-study/

They studied 60,000+ outbound calls, measured the response rate of each attempt against when the call was made, the quantity of attempts, etc.  For example:

The best day of the week to reach out?

I recommend you read through the article, take notes, and try your own experiments. Doing so could yield better results on your end, while optimizing the way you do your work. 

[followupcc]

Sales Tip:  Bcc to your CRM

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a Sales rep is to not update your “System of record”, and now-a-days, that’s usually a CRM.  Why is this an often overlooked step?  It’s a context switch.  Sending an email, getting interrupted, then forgetting to update your CRM happens.

What’s a good way to prevent this?

Use the BCC to CRM feature in our Chrome Extension!

Most CRM’s will provide you an email address you can use to automatically log email conversations.  When you add your CRM’s email address to our Chrome Extension, we’ll automatically add it to all emails you send out moving forward. 

If you use a CRM, we highly recommend you use this to prevent missing an update.  It takes just a minute to set up, and if you need assistance doing so, let us know at [email protected] and we’ll help!

[followupcc]

How I Finally Got to Inbox Zero

I admit it; I am guilty of Inbox 5489. For years, I’d been content to let the messages in my Inbox stack up—and up, and up—until I had literally thousands of messages waiting for attention.

The problem was, I didn’t give them attention. I just let them sit there. In fact, as more and more email poured into my box, it became easier and easier to ignore all but the most urgent messages. Whenever a message was particularly important, I would read it and immediately “unread” it until I had time to respond.

Every day I would talk to users who were getting to that most magical of places: Inbox Zero. I heard their tips and hacks. I believed in the beauty of the mission. And I kept trying to make my way there—but every time I got close, more messages would pile in, and in no time I was buried once again.

Then it was the New Year, and I overheard two of my coworkers comparing nearly perfect Inboxes. One of them was down to six. The other was upset to have over 20—a dream number for me. So I decided to make it my single goal for 2015: Get to Inbox Zero and stay there. And last week I finally achieved the first half of that equation, #inboxzero. Here’s a breakdown of how I did it:

1) First I archived everything over three months old. If I hadn’t touched an email in over three months, it couldn’t have been that important. These emails were basically archived in my Inbox anyway, so I was just moving them away.

2) Then I sorted. I had reports, promotions, articles, product updates . . . everything in every category, all in my Inbox. I searched for email addresses, subjects, and more. If the emails related to a topic, I labeled and archived them. If they related to a person, I scanned and archived all conversations expect those that were active.

3) Next, I got my star on. I starred emails that I needed to handle or schedule time for, and I changed my Inbox settings so that starred emails were at the top. This was an easy way for me to quickly filter the important items.

4) Since I use Gmail, I added the “Send and Archive” button to my compose window. This made it easy for me to get email out of my Inbox when I had replied to it. For emails that might need a Follow Up, I scheduled a reminder with FollowUp.cc, so I knew I would get a reminder.

5) Finally, I scheduled time for handling emails that needed more attention or required future conversation using FollowUp.cc. For example, on Monday I organize my week, so tasks related to goals and projects get forwarded [email protected]. Tuesday I follow up with customers and reach out to new users, so I forward these tasks to [email protected]. And so on. I love using the days of the week in FollowUp.cc: It works with my flow.

As I found myself picking off the last five emails in my Inbox, I sent one last message to [email protected]. Subject: Write blog article on InboxZero. Sent and archived. :)

Will I stay at Inbox Zero? I’ll check back in a month or so to give you an update.

Read more of my articles:

Tips to Effectively Use Email Open Tracking to Grow Your Business

6 Email Etiquette Rules for the Age of Inbox Overload

Cool Tools Every Real Estate Agent Should Get Now

Why I Love My Unhappy Customers (and you should too)

[followupcc]

Using FollowUp.cc "Replies" to make Following Up a Snap

Have you ever received a FollowUp.cc reminder, hit "Reply" and realized that you are emailing FollowUp.cc and not the person you want to follow up with? FollowUp.cc's "Replies" feature makes it easy to follow up on an email when you can't find your original email. 

How does the "Replies" feature work in FollowUp.cc?

"Replies" allows you to receive a FollowUp.cc reminder, hit reply in your email client and the message will reply to your original recipients and not to FollowUp.cc. This feature is especially popular for users that have a email client that is not threaded, such as most Outlook users, or if you have deleted the original message.

With "Replies" enabled, you don't have to search or sort - you simply hit "Reply", type in your message and hit send.

How do I enable "Replies"?

On the settings menu in the web app. Here is a link https://followup.cc/settings

Tip #2 - If you want to have a clean email format when you use "Replies", change your snooze bar setting to "none" on the settings page. Then your FollowUp.cc reminders will come without any formatting. You will miss your snooze bar, but you can always forward a message to the future to snooze it. 

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3 Tips to Optimize Outlook & FollowUp.cc

Outlook users -- want to make your scheduling experience more smooth and productive with FollowUp.cc reminders? Outlook is a very popular platform that our FollowUp.cc users enjoy sending reminders and follow ups through. We have 3 great tips for you today!

   1. Turn on Conversation View in Outlook:  Reminders are much easier to respond to, cancel, and in general keep track of when you have enabled your Conversation View, otherwise known as "threading" for its ability to thread together all your emails on the same subject.

How do I turn on Conversation View/Threading Emails in Outlook?

In order to enable your Conversation View to make your FollowUp.cc reminders easier to manage, simply go to View > Show as Conversation View. An example of what to select:

That's it -- you now have easier-to-view email conversations.

2. Have FollowUp.cc autofill your reminders for you: Another helpful tip is to install is the Vcard, which is a contact card that will help you automatically fill out your address line to set FollowUp.cc reminders. Click here to install the FollowUp.cc Vcard. Here's what happens after you install it:

Now, you can easily send your reminders with the help of this useful contact card. Here's a written article explaining how to do this.

3. View both calendars on one in Outlook: The big and beautiful calendar feature that Outlook provides can easily be integrating your scheduled reminders from FollowUp.cc.

How do I integrate calendars on Outlook? 

It's easy; here's a quick overview of how to do it:

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Want more advice? Here's another article from our Help Center on how to seamlessly integrate your FollowUp.cc calendar onto your Outlook calendar. Calendar integration is available on all our paid accounts. Need to make an upgrade? Check out your options here. Making your life easier -- that's what we strive for. Questions on how to make your hybrid Outlook + FollowUp.cc experience better? Email us at [email protected].

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Faster FollowUp.cc

When we rewrote FollowUp.cc, our development team's main priority was making sure the applications functionality didn't change and things migrated over to the new infrastructure seamlessly. There were definitely hiccups during the transition, and we spent tons of man hours getting things on track. Once stable, we focused on working through some core features that had the highest priority.

During all of this, we knew site performance was an issue. Well, we finally had the time to tackle some of the worst offending performance issues, and ended up making the site almost 3x faster. While there is still room to improve, we thought we'd share a graph of one of the metrics before and after our improvements:

We love everything about software, and metrics, and we'll be sharing more and more moving forward. Things are only going to be getting faster, and we hope you noticed. Stay tuned for more development posts, and if there is anything specific you'd like to see addressed, we'd love hear from you!

[followupcc]

Keep Track of Donations With Ease

We are 30 days away from last years tax deadline, and tax savvy folks are already planning for next years filing. I admit, I have always been horrible about organizing tax documents. The year starts with folders and great intentions and ends with me sorting through piles of paperwork, receipts and notes.

But this year, I am 5 months in and my new plan is working. When I have a tax deduction - I simply take a snapshot of the receipt with my phone and forward it to [email protected]. In the subject line, I write myself a quick reminder - ie. school donation or goodwill dropoff. This easy system of creating emails for my tax deductible donations really works.

If I want to look at any receipts, I can either scroll to January 10, 2015 in my FollowUp calendar or view my attachments in Dropbox.

Do you have a great use for FollowUp.cc? Let us know and we will send you a gift. :) Just email us at [email protected] today.

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3 Reminders Every College Student Needs

For most people, college is the first time you are independent, running your own life! It’s hectic, exciting and confusing and it is very easy to let a few things slip your mind. Setting a few simple reminders can help enormously; here are three that I found really helpful:

1)   Pass times. It’s so easy to forget your pass time and miss out on signing up for the classes you really need to get into! At the start of the year just take 5 minutes to set reminders for your pass times and never forget them again! You could even set the reminder an hour before your pass time so you can find the course numbers and get ready to sign up.

2)   Workout everyday. It’s easy to pack on the pounds in college, between sitting around most of the time, little to no time to cook healthy meals, and free flowing beer. Doing a few sit-ups or going on a quick jog everyday can make a big difference. The only problems are actually remembering everyday and motivating yourself to get going. I solved this by setting a recurring reminder for every day that says “Time to Get Some Exercise!” and attaching a picture of my favorite inspirational workout quote to motivate me! 

3)   Monthly bills. Every college student has dealt with a late bill – is it already the 17th?? Set a reminder for both yourself and your roommates for the day before your monthly bills, like rent, gas and electricity, are due so you can remember to pay them on time to avoid late fees!

Do you have another suggestion? Share it in the comment section below and we will send you an awesome FollowUp.cc tshirt — so you can avoid laundry for one more day. ;)